DIN-rail lightning strike counter

Yeah! Weird device that I've never come across before. I kinda want to fit one in my DB just for the gimmick value.
It's basically a digital counter with non-volatile memory, that detects high current pulses being shunted by a surge protector and gives a running score.
This could be used to monitor for when a new surge protection module was needed, but it is only designed to detect high current pulses, so won't show the accumulated small-transient shunting that can be caused by highly inductive loads in the vicinity.
Quite novel though, with sensible design and a stunningly low standby current of just 0.1W.
Given that the input is electrically isolated (on this particular unit), I wonder if it could have other event counting uses with a simple low voltage input.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- www.bigclive.c...
This also keeps the channel independent of KZbin's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
#ElectronicsCreators

[@opera5714]

Most equipment already includes a lightning strike counter. It only counts to one though.

[@DrQuadrivium]

Yes, and the more expensive the equipment is the more sensitive/accurate it is.

[@uiopuiop3472]

@@DrQuadrivium Yes i haeve the shoddy counter calld fanuc controllbox... i haeve no robots but controllbox... taht alwayse needing replacment fuse!!!! as they lightning

[@muzikman2008]

Lol 🤭

[@soundspark]

If I was the video uploader I'd pin this one!

[@the_amazing_raisin]

I find the fact that they gave it a 3 digit display alarming. Personally after my house got struck by lightning for the 99th time I'd probably get the message and move away

[@jaykoerner]

I would assume industrial use would be more common, massive metal buildings with long spurs to massive parking lots for lighting would lead to much more strikes... Also I would assume it detects strikes not just to you directly but anything downstream of the substation that supplies your power

[@Манлетопия]

yet people still live in Florida

[@NinoJoel]

Its not for counting direct strikes but rather spikes from lightning in the mains or the electrical syst.

[@Манлетопия]

@@NinoJoel yeah in a direct lightning strike it doesnt matter it will blow through the surge protection and blow up the counter too

[@the_tux]

Great Scott!

[@tncorgi92]

I have a row of pine trees along my property line that serve as lightning detectors. Tree intact = no lightning strike, Tree obliterated, parts on neighbor's roof = probable lightning strike. Started with 8 trees a decade ago, I'm now down to 3.

[@menacingdonutz]

Thanks for the late night chuckle, genuinely hilarious.

[@t1mmy13]

You might want to plant a few more trees mate

[@jwalker7567]

Plant some pinecones!

[@johnwiley8417]

6:45 Hooray! An optoisolator! The condom of the electronics world.

[@guife_lix]

Going to refer to direct measurements as going raw, or perhaps raw-dogging the signal.

[@Operational117]

@@guife_lix Does that mean that a diode is more akin to birth control pills? Really good at protecting against normal voltages but can fail during transient spikes. Oh, does that mean that a fuse is either a morning-after-pill or even Plan C? Heck, maybe the RCD/RCCB/GFCI is effectively an IUD? Oh boy, the rabbit hole we could tumble down here. 😅

[@viniciusvbf22]

lol

[@chrisw1462]

Lightning can strike several times in the same place, often so fast it looks like a single bolt. But an optoisolator trigger would easily see the separate pulses. So the capacitor across this one is effectively debouncing a lightning strike! 😀

[@restorer19]

Ah, I'd forgotten about their old slogan... "TOMZN - their stuff is okay!"

[@Gen.Tomsky]

I just removed a very ancient relative of this dingus a few weeks ago when dismantling redundant wiring in a huge 1980ies control room mosaic switch panel. It was a quite interesting yet simple device. Essentially it was just a mercury-filled discharge glass tube with a coil wrapped around it. The coil's rating was indicated as something around 33 volts. It was apparently installed to protect an old telephone landline alarm circuit, which must have been decommissioned a quarter of a century ago, so unfortunately no plans could be found anymore as they were not incorporated in the switch panel's original documentation that we still have. And while its very own design doesn't leave much in the dark, it would have been interesting what kind of circuitry had been used back then. Alas, there was just a short piece of cable, neatly cut off, indicating that it must have been connected to something in the past. As all this goes back to an age well BG (before Google) the interwebs also weren't particularly helpful in getting more information about this kind of surge protection/detection installations.

[@Gen.Tomsky]

@@samuelfellows6923 Well, while the system was actually commissioned in 1983 I doubt that they were much concerned about the potential nuclear destruction of a, well, sewage treatment plant. All I could find out from the retirees was that the plant has had numerous remote alarm systems since its very early days to prevent some catastrophic malfunction going on unnoticed during the off-work hours. FWIW - the plant isn't located in the UK.

[@zyeborm]

​@@Gen.Tomskyyaknow sewerage treatment plants would be really very important after a nuke. Like it's 100% not the use case for it. But, probably have more deaths after the nuke from dysentery and such than the actual bang. Especially for an emp.

[@johnj4860]

I'm intrigued as to WHY the normal consumers installation would need to count strikes

[@mxslick50]

Many years (actually about 4 decades ago) a popular electronics magazine published a circuit for a lightning detector that you connected to an AM (MW for those in the UK and other parts) radio. The theory was very simple, the circuit had a notch filter that blocked most of the audio but would pass the static crunches caused by lightning. If the level of those pulses exceeded the set treshold, it would trigger a light and audible alarm. One can also figure out the rough distance from the storm by listening to the intensity of the static based on where the radio was tuned. If on the low end of the band, you can hear lightning from farther away. At the upper end, storms had to be closer for the static to be heard.

[@davidg4288]

Analog channel 2 in the US is around 55 megahertz (yeah some TV is on VHF here, we are cave men). If you watch the lightning interference on channel 2 you can "see" tornadoes in the vicinity. The tornado(es) have to be in VHF TV range which is around 20 miles, that isn't good. When the whole screen is white with interference you should have taken cover long ago. Of course you should be watching the weather on another TV, they have radar and will tell you the exact street the tornado is on.

[@Pulverrostmannen]

My house been hit by a direct lightning strike, I found that out while climbing in the attic and found strange black burn marks on the wires in several places, turns out the metal shielding around the wires had completely evaporated making holes onto neighboring wires too, The Lightning hit the roof or chimney and made it into the attic where it found the wires where it exploded the shielding while traveling through these into the fuse box to again burn holes in the shielding to strike into the ground plane of the fuse box. nice to know that some of these holes that were made by this was under the dry sawdust isolation this old house has in the attic. I don´t know when this happen but I found this damage just recently. I was quite surprised to say the least and it took a lot of effort to examine the damage that was made

[@andrewrussack8647]

My experience with lighting strikes/induced voltages is resonances are set up that leads to the resonant nodes causing the burns with gaps of no damage in between. It looks weird, but makes sense in the context of a brief standing wave.

[@Pulverrostmannen]

@@andrewrussack8647 indeed. Lightning can act very weird to say the least

[@scottthomas3792]

Years ago, a " haunted house " turned out to have " Franklins Bells" behind a panel...about as simple a lightning detector as you can get... Probably 150+ years old. The owner noticed bells would ring before storms, and thought it was a ghost..

[@shaunclarke94]

Surprisingly well built. Don't see the two resistors on the capactive dropper often, even in good brand hardware.

[@ado3247]

As someone who is inexperienced, mind answering why are 2 resistors on a capacitive dropper a sign of good quality? I assume a single equivalent resistor would serve the same purpose. Is it because it shows they are baller and don't cheap out on products?

[@shaunclarke94]

@@ado3247 I'm not an expert, but I believe a single resistor is near/at/over it's voltage rating when used this way.

[@gudenau]

This is one of the few times your random online shopping found something I legitimately want.

[@Mmouse_]

Used to work in am automated warehouse (pallet retrieval and put away, demag cranes etc), had a lightening strike once... Not on the building... On the security hut which was way lower down than anywhere else, including absolutely massive lamp posts all rooted deep in the ground... No it wanted the security hut, from there it somehow managed to find it's way to the warehouse... The PLC's did not like that... At all. Interestingly it didn't kill them, it just scrambled them and a power cycle sorted it. Big scar on the security hut though.

[@jhsevs]

There is a trick to improving contrast on 7 segment displays. You can cut out a small piece of dark automotive window tint and stick it onto the 7 segment display. The effect is incredible, makes it much easier to read, it’s like night and day

[@jhsevs]

There is a 1 minute long video on a youtube channel named Hugatry’s Hackvlog that shows this

[@bigclivedotcom]

I sometimes add a bit of theatre gel of the matching colour to the display.

[@jhsevs]

Interesting. I’d love to see a video on that! What is theatre gel?

[@McTroyd]

Colored electrical tape works well too.

[@MostlyInteresting]

There are lightning detectors all across the US and web pages you can go to that you can watch the lightning strikes live. It's so much fun listening for the thunder after you see the lightning strike on the detector map.

[@tactileslut]

The directional impulse sensitive receivers behind those detectors are pretty cool, as is the existence of a service that correlates the events and maps the likely source locations. Chris Arndt runs one in San Luis Obispo, California.

[@patchvonbraun]

Back in the late 1970s, I built a lightning detector that could detect lightning strikes anywhere within perhaps a 10-15km radius from my house. 30m antenna wire, perhaps 2-3m from the ground, and a neon bulb + resistor between it and ground. I guess that if dedicating a little computer to such tasks were a "thing" back then, I would have done that for counting.

[@JohnShalamskas]

When I was in high school I built a superregenerative multiband radio receiver kit. The antenna was a 30 foot hunk of magnet wire strung under the eaves of my home with cuphooks. The first thunderstorm that came through the area afterwards made me fear for my new receiver, so I disconnected the magnet wire from the antenna terminal and was in the process of connecting it to ground (HVAC duct) when I both saw and felt a flash of lightning. Luckily it was a couple of miles away (the lag between flash and thunder was around 10 seconds.) It was still a bit painful, like an electric fence. After that I always grounded the antenna when not in use.

[@leybraith3561]

...@14'50" you express 'mild surprise' re the capacitor across the 'reset' switch. I suspect the capacitor's purpose is more to prevent local extreme noise events (zapppppityy zap zap) from resetting the count rather than to de-bounce the switch... Great video, appreciate you finding all these novel bits and pieces and doing the analysis... ...Just had an amusing thought.. You and your channel are almost like having a subroutine running in the background that I, (and a million +++ others), poll occasionally to see if it has found anything intriguing... LOL.

[@TomCee53]

Turn on notifications in order to not miss anything. 🤪

[@MicraHakkinen]

Another 2 possible reasons for the debouncing capacitor across the reset switch I could think of: - To prevent multiple unnecessary writes to the non-volatile storage when the reset button is pressed. - To allow a future firmware version to respond differently to that button being pressed, requiring a debounced signal from it.

[@leybraith3561]

@@TomCee53 ...Ahhh...yessss...an interrupt instead of a poll.... Nice!....

[@MrEdwardhartmann]

I think the cap across the optic isolator is also a debounce circuit of sorts. I know nothing about lighting strikes, but I could believe that there could be a bunch of transitions in a very short duration that would just be one strike and you would want to count them as one strike

[@captainboing]

hmmm... interesting. I have a plug in "surge clock" which looks like a wall-wart (white - well, it used to be... it's now that sort of universal p1ss yellow that white ABS goes over time) with a ring of LEDs on the front of it. I suspect it is a similar mechanism (although it is at least 25 years old). Used to install Telephone systems years ago and they almost universally seem to be very intolerant of dirty mains. When we used to get mystery crashes etc, we put the surge clock in near the mains for the PABX and came back in a day or two, then sold the customer a mains conditioner :o) I remember the Regent system in the Isle of Ely college in Wisbech was particulary badly affected. The conditioner sorted it out after we traced it to dirty mains using the surge clock.

[@markedis5902]

I’ve seen a lightning counter totally burned out on site before. It’s as if the lightning went “count that ya bastard” Mind you everything on that panel was lightning damaged

[@TheZombieSaints]

Whoa!

[@freefall2003]

😅

[@JohnShalamskas]

I chose to read this as if Clive were speaking.

[@tybofborg]

that's the counter's way of saying "more than 0"

[@thomasneal9291]

" It’s as if the lightning went “count that ya bastard”" "Still only counts as one!"

[@debgreentree]

Every time I watch you I get better in my understanding and get better at having fun with me having better outcomes with fixing things ❤

[@across8339]

That 'magic' chip with its 20 pins is likely a full-on microcontroller, with a writable eeprom memory bank, SPI & I2C interfacing and possibly analogue to digital conversion. It would be able to do so much more than be a simple counter, like using a Swiss army knife to crack a nut.

[@sootikins]

And at least 1 hardware interrupt I suspect. As Clive was talking about scanning the display while checking for pulses from the opto the programming side of my brain was muttering "poll at your peril - use interrupt"

[@hammerth1421]

I feel like that happens a lot these days. The engineering cost of designing an actual circuit appears to be higher than grabbing some random Swiss army knife microcontroller and programming it to perform a very simple task with minimal external circuitry.

[@Christian-lh7ux]

With cheap MCUs like the ones from WCH it just makes sense. It's so cheap that I'm going to smart out sensors and subcircuits to relieve the main MCU 😅 Swiss army knifes for everything and everyone 🎉

[@leybraith3561]

...microcontrollers rather than basic discrete....so many many more ways to lock up just when you need it the most....just sayin'....

[@Christian-lh7ux]

@@leybraith3561 It's sad but you might be right. If one has an "unknown" device and such a "node MCU" fails it might be difficult to repair, at least more difficult than let's say a discrete circuit. On the other hand, if it's e.g. open source or the protocol is known you're not only able to repair it but it might also be easier to replace a legacy/hard to get sensor, IC etc. IMAO. What do you think?

[@konobikundude]

I'd love to see much more of what the range of DIN modules available... Seems like there's a bundle of cool/odd options available

[@kathrynwhitby9799]

i've seen one on Amazon that measures Volts, Amps, Hertz etc.

[@sivoltage]

People are getting mixed up between lightning strikes and lightning strokes. A lightning strike on this thing would destroy it and the entire board. A lightning stroke is a transient over voltage generally picked up through the ground. I think.

[@Poult100]

A lightning stroke sounds like a medical emergency to me!

[@DieselTjuv]

I came for the (mis-read) Lightning Counter Strike action, but stayed for the educational content

[@Robothut]

Amazing that the sense coil can produce enough voltage and current to light the LED in the opto. Thank you for sharing this with us.

[@robegatt]

not very much energy... few mA * 1.3V * few microseconds

[@ЁбрагимИпатенкоибнАдхарма]

You always can add enough turns of enough cross-section wire on proper sized core for it😀

[@HughCStevenson1]

I designed a lightning stroke counter in 1979! Mine was a bit simpler than that one. It was powered by a big toroidal coil around the conductor. A mechanical counter!

[@christopherleubner6633]

Used something similar to these to temporarily shunt the antenna on mission critical gear with a big DPST RF vacuum relay. Ours measured the frequency of strikes and the field potential while ignoring the RF. It did save us once when lightning hit the tower, killed the vacuum relay by welding the contacts togther, but that was it, only a 800 dollar part vs the 200k plus transmitter.❤

[@cheyannei5983]

I've got a fun one! Our first satellite dish wasn't grounded, at all. We had a lightning strike about a quarter mile down the road. Since satellite is just a bunch of copper tubes and wire, it caught a shockingly high amount of the energy. Every single connector and wire that was connected to the satellite system was either arced over or had carbonized shielding. Thankfully, everything connected to our TV's are on expensive surge protectors due to my parents growing up with antennas, so only their equipment was completely damaged. Technician said he had never seen anything like it. All the barrel connectors in the walls had melted panels!

[@chrisstorm7704]

Interesting indeed; Thanks for sharing. It seems like having a device like that with a dry contact instead of a flag would be convenient. If you had a bunch of those on different circuits in a panel, the status contacts could all be wired in series, so if any one hits EOL the operator could be notified to check the panel. I still love the idea of a counter, it provides a great opportunity to learn more about how long a MOV or TVS diode may last, or also give insights into locations that may have voltage spikes unusually often.

[@sgctactics]

I not too recently designed and made some counter trigger circuits for our resistance welders (low voltage, huge current). We originally took a signal from the firing board to a relay to trigger the counter and it would skip all the damn time. Used the bridge rectifier like that with schottskies that would trigger a transistor to pull the counter input low. Since the welder is essentially thick copper bars, I just zip tied the old 120v relay that we were originally using to the welder throat and used its coil as a current sensor. Worked great! And now the only time it skips, every few hundred parts instead of every dozen, is a random voltage drop from the power supply that drives the counter. I probably have you to thank somewhere in the design process 🤔

[@AndyFletcherX31]

Good to see a nice bit of conservative engineering with quality components.

[@zh84]

Given that it's working with sudden violent high current and voltage spikes, it may be that if they cheaped out the components would just have failed the first time they were needed.

[@deepblueskyshine]

TVSs come in two varieties - normal works as a zenner, usually called unidirectional, and bidirectional working as two opposingly connected in series zenners.

[@stevenlein4772]

Hook up the CT input to an AM radio speaker tuned to a quiet part of the band. Now you have an lightning air discharge counter. Power the counter with a usb power bank, and you're good to go for your next picnic, pool party, boat trip.

[@craignehring]

Who knew this would be built to this degree Thanks for the video Master Big Clive

[@phonotical]

Thanks

[@whitlabs]

I bought a few of these TOMZN Lightning counters and can confirm the capacitor discharge test method worked for me and I see counts. I did get many counts from a single ark event though. Using these to monitor the usefulness of my AC and DC (solar PV) surge suppression system. Commercial surge counters versions were too expensive to justify using on a residential system. Though I did have to modify the TOMZN Lightning Counter to work on US voltage and frequency (120V 60Hz) by changing the film X2 cap from 47nF to 100nF.

[@davidbandler]

Clive, Completely off-topic but when I saw this I totally thought of you (and figured you’d be interested). Breville has a new carbonator system called the InFizz that they’re marketing specifically to carbonate alcoholic drinks, sugary drinks, and pretty much what you abuse your SodaStream for lol. Much more swanky and classy looking of a system too - probably more expensive.

[@bigclivedotcom]

I looked at it and when I saw the astronomical price for something so simple I decided not to promote it by featuring it in my videos.

[@davidbandler]

That was pretty much my reaction to it too; but I can't say my reaction to SodaStream isn't too different. Forever I keep thinking I want one, then when I go look (US pricing) they want a couple hundred just to get started - then of course you've got to accessorize! Then there's that monthly cost for cylinder exchange over here -- ends-up being way cheaper funding Big Corn Syrup. Oh yea SodaStream is Pepsi now over here. I feel like Breville is definitely marketing themself towards the in-home bar crowd; the unit I had looked at very much looked like a barroom tap. Swanky.

[@NiHaoMike64]

@@davidbandlerBecky Stern has a video on how to adapt one to use a larger CO2 cylinder.

[@HappyQuailsLC]

Aw, we missed the best part of your breaking it open with stuff shooting out everywhere : )

[@agentv1240]

I reckon this is funnier to just a jumpcut from "perfectly intact device" to "oh dear its everywhere"

[@samerc1]

I think this is for lightning detectors. I like this good idea because i can see the number if count of lightning hit. Good job.

[@DioDCynic]

Lighting Strike Counter sounds like a fighting videogame move.

[@JfromUK_]

Nice to see something you're very complimentary on! *Buys shares in TOMZN*

[@curtw8827]

GE engineers developed MOVs in the 70s. At that time they determined 80% of transients are generated by devices in the home itself.

[@5467nick]

Refrigerators, gas discharge lights, and air conditioners are guilty of many sins against more sensitive electronics.

[@curtw8827]

@@5467nick yes, add coffee makers, toasters, furnace blowers, water heaters, anything clicking off and on, and of course switch mode power supplies.

[@4bSix86f61]

0:30 LEDs usually fail early because they are driven higher than their rated current.

[@mikebond6328]

Does that mean that red LED’s have a higher current rating than other colors?

[@4bSix86f61]

@@mikebond6328 Driving leds at around 20ma results in brightness and heat.

[@lifeai1889]

because sometimes there is no series resistor with the microcontroller pins so the display is driven at 150ma

[@dcallan812]

Interesting item, and well thought out circuitry, not stripped to the base amount of components that allow it to function just about. 2x👍

[@Uncle-Duncan-Shack]

A Zeus score counter, excellent!

[@gabrielv.4358]

This is why I pay the internet. I have NEVER EVER IN MY WHOLE LIFE Thought that the tech that's out there even exist... I mean, I have seen SO MUCH THINGS that my country NEVER had (like High end anything) and even more, and seeing the miscellaneous tech that's made out there I realized. Humans are insanely intelligent. Impressive that things that seem impossible or just nonsense are made / created, I cant even explain. Just awesome to see how many different electro-mechanic things were made and are being made (some are e-waste but awesome nontheless).... My comment is nonsense, sorry. I just wanted to share my thoughts about human creations. Awesome stuff that I never expected to exist or could exist but have no practical use, but they have. Impressive. If you read it all, thanks. Have an awesome day/ night and I wish you an awesome life.

[@jeffdayman8183]

I wouldn't suggest standing outdoors in a thunderstorm with this gizmo , with or without a long copper bar thru the coil, facing upward. Get your neighbour to do it, after the next "will it carbonate?" episode with ethanol infused fluids. 8^) Cheers!

[@alexoja2918]

I suggest a small rocket with a transformer wire tied to it. An open coil will unravel quite fast and you'll get a long lightning rod. Or just make a rocket with some metallic component like magnesium or sodium, and you'll leave a conductive dust trail. Both are methods for getting lightning strikes.

[@RolandW_DIYEnergyandMore]

Funny find. I ordered one and will install it at my main panel 3-phase SPD just to see if this is really showing any useful information. In the tropics we should have enough lightning surges coming down the line...

[@nakfan]

Next time we want to see the disassembly with thing flying around 😅

[@imark7777777]

Well that was definitely an interesting one. And who knew there was some good stuff out there.

[@KeritechElectronics]

Interesting. I wonder if it would be triggered by short circuit events on a monitored branch.

[@bigclivedotcom]

Theoretically it could work as a short circuit detector and fault logger.

[@andymouse]

It would probably work on all parts of the Tree.

[@KeritechElectronics]

@@andymouse Yggdrasil!

[@andymouse]

@@KeritechElectronics A sacred tree indeed !

[@thereare4lights137]

Very pleasing indeed. Think I'll order one 😊

[@SensitiveFernn]

Where I work, the building that the company uses as an office was struck by lightning a few months back, it fried every telephone in the building, most of the conputer monitors, and the routers. I was glad I didnt have to deal with any of the setbacks because I don't work on the office side of things

[@ruben_balea]

Mehdi needs a pair of these counters with custom coils that fit his index fingers 😁

[@wiseoldfool]

OH, yeah, let's get Mehdi playing with this!

[@4bSix86f61]

There's a possibility that this surge protector can detect short circuits, inductive loads and current spikes defeating its purpose. Maybe if this thing reads voltage instead of current, it will be less error prone. Reposted it because the edit removed the heart. tip: if you post a comment and it gets a heart DO NOT EDIT IT.

[@bigclivedotcom]

I do see edited comments, and they usually get another little heart. The unit should really just see a current spike going through the surge device, via the pickup coil.

[@RODALCO2007]

Interesting device. I have seen them with mechanical counters in substations.

[@ManWithBeard1990]

You could stick a wire through the current transformer and short circuit a battery through it. I suspect it expects a DC pulse anyway, which is what lightning is. If the current transformer is wound on its entire circumference, hitting it with a magnet won't do much.

[@jim40135]

There are some railway installations in the UK where certain components have to be tested and/or replaced if a voltage transient has been registered on devices similar to these DIN mount units (irrespective of transient source, so not necessarily lightning).

[@Chris-ut6eq]

The strike counter does not have any type of technical datasheet to characterize what it considers a strike? Without that, it's more of novelty toy then I useful instrument. For that matter, wonder if there is some type of industry standard for characterizing strikes on an electrical grid?

[@darrenglynn597]

Thanks Clive.

[@HaNguyen-wm9ge]

Thank you. I found exactly what to buy after watching this movie.

[@AdamSWL]

Comes home to find house a charred ruin. Goes and checks the TOMZN which says "1" "Yeah we were definitely hit by lightning!"

[@kaysonntag74]

I once saw another version of this. With a mechanical counter, integrated directly into the earthing of a lightning conductor system. Unfortunately I couldn't take a look inside. In this case, I suspect that the counter is actuated by the magnetic field generated around the earthing rod.

[@ThorMccammon]

Someone needs to hook that to ElectroBOOM! 😀

[@bethaltair812]

He'd probably just try and test it with a building sized Tesla coil

[@Gin-toki]

It doesen't have enough digits in the display :P

[@mrwoodandmrtin]

I've had three electrical devices in homes taken out by lightning strikes over the years. Usually, the earth track on the circuit board is melted away. Always a surprise to find.

[@todayonthebench]

A counter like this seems interesting. However, it wouldn't really help much in knowing the amount of wear in the surge protector. Since a larger source wears it out more than a smaller one. And not all lightning strikes are the same, not to mention other surges on the grid. Though. Could still be interesting statistics for the statistics inclined.

[@petewhelan4335]

If you get a direct strike, counting is irrelevant. An indirect strike enough to trigger the SPD could be on the live, neutral or earth. Generally a strike to earthnearby will induce a significant voltage into the earth, and if close to a power line , then also to those conductors

[@LawpickingLocksmith]

Still wanting to see Clive pressing that fun button on the hopi.

[@phonotical]

I've seen more and more moves with our a voltage or power rating on now some just state their resistance or their dimensions, it's really unhelpful

[@MrMesVentes]

Correct me if I'm wrong but normally metal oxide parts fail in a short circuit mode. So in theory you'll know when to change the surge protector when it will continually clamp the mains voltage. Interesting circuit nonetheless.

[@bigclivedotcom]

They do trip a thermal fuse or link when they heat up. But this may be to give a warning one is needing replaced in advance.

[@gregorythomas333]

Never realized there was an actual need to count lightning strikes...to me if the power goes zap-boom then goes out it's pretty sure a sign of them :)

[@barrieshepherd7694]

The number of counts probably gives you a good indication of how close to being useless the surge suppressor is.

[@Spectral_Penguin]

In some cases it gives an indication of how useless the lightning strike counter is. Worked on an antenna farm that had a mechanical style counter on each mast, and all of them were on 99 and probably had been for years.

[@teardowndan5364]

@@barrieshepherd7694 Counting strikes is useless though since the lifespan of MOVs is a function of how much energy they have absorbed in each event, not the event count. MOVs can officially take only one hit at their maximum joules rating but hundreds at 1/10th rating as long as they have time to cool down in-between and do 1/100th almost indefinitely as long as they have adequate cooling. There is somewhat of an inverse square relationship there.

[@wibbley1]

@@teardowndan5364 MOV?

[@teardowndan5364]

@@wibbley1 Metal Oxide Varistor. They are sometimes also called Voltage Dependent Resistors. These things have a voltage rating based on the point where they leak 1mA which increases by orders of magnitude into the kA by the time their peak energy rating is reached.

[@Манлетопия]

They also sell Whole House Surge Protectors with logging of Surge Voltage and Surge Times

[@olivierconet7995]

Very interesting, thanks.This counter is to be installed inside an electrical panel. I have seen lightning strikes counters mounted on ahigh current down conductors of the lightning protection of a high building. I am wondering how the electronics of such a counter can be protected from several kiloamps/ kilovolts of a lightning strike ? And not be destroyed before counting to 1 🤣

[@bigclivedotcom]

The surge shunt it's monitoring will be keeping the peak voltage across it down.

[@Tntdruid]

The led display chip is a tm1637

[@bigclivedotcom]

That's just a display driver. It can't count independently or store a setting while unpowered.

[@stevetobias4890]

Very nice, I love these tear downs. I would also love to see you replicate them "Clive Style " for the items you feel are just too basic and could be done better.

[@maxiflow8695]

Honestly is amazing....great video

[@peter.stimpel]

haha, counting lightnings in your power distribution box ... crazy idea, I like it. Oh, and not Temu (got it ;) )

[@bigmango202]

Perfect timing as I going through a thunderstorm

[@rpdom]

Interesting you should post this during one of the biggest thunderstorms I've seen here 😃

[@samuelfellows6923]

😨,

[@rpdom]

@@samuelfellows6923 UK. I posted that a couple of weeks ago. Nowhere near as big as the ones currently in the US, but pretty big for us.

[@samuelfellows6923]

@@rpdom ~ the evidence of climate change

[@Lmay_3809]

The chip might be a dedicated 7 segment counter too, who knows, because the optical idolator will just output a logic signal

[@iamdarkyoshi]

I wonder if the arcing output of a stun gun module would be enough of a current spike to count as lightning. Only one way to find out, maybe don't feel the output of it this time :)

[@theelmonk]

I don't think they pass a very heavy current. They're more about voltage to strike an arc. A battery welder might do it.

[@bubbasplants189]

No way that little thing can survive being struck by lightning 999 times! Incredible!

[@volvo09]

Not designed for direct strikes. It would blow up like anything else. It detects "farther away" strikes on the electrical system that are reaching your sensitive equipment or whatever you want to monitor.

[@bigclivedotcom]

It rolls over, so if you see it approaching 1000 you can keep track.

[@paulyouphone2793]

... You 'screwdrivered' that little capacitor 999 times to see if the display would roll over ?😲 :- that's dedication to your subscribers . Impressed ! 😁

[@mikegofton1]

Thanks Clive. I’ve always wondered if the mcu is programmed in circuit using JTAG ? presumably there’s a fuseable bit set after programming which inhibits reading the flash memory.

[@bigclivedotcom]

There usually is a protection bit. But sometimes they don't set them.

[@4bSix86f61]

There's a possibility that this surge protector can detect short circuits, inductive loads and current spikes defeating its purpose. OOPS the edit removed the heart.

[@bertiesworld]

Having seen a house that has had a real lightening strike, I really do wonder about the gimmick value of such a device. Physically, the house wiring looked nigh on normal but it was anything but. A couple of sockets had been blown off the wall and using an insulation resistance tester would show all cables had shorts between live, neutral and earth conductors, left as the insulation melted down. Somehow, I don't think I'll be bothering with a counter. Much like the new fangle must have, the AFDD. Just adding another source of possible arcing and something else to go wrong.

[@frogz]

you need a high voltage/high current pulse device, electric fly swatter without the bug grid works great to get a random ~300v pulse out of the tiny cap in them, could probably trip this inductively

[@Doug-b4p]

Hold the sensor next to the distributor in your car or next to plug boot love you're viddy's

[@wiseoldfool]

Distributor. How quaint!

[@michaelwebber4033]

The ones I use have a connector on them to indicate the module has had a transient across. It is possible to wire an indicator lamp and alarm across it.

[@francistheodorecatte]

this could just be the current transformer section of the circuit, less the opto-isolator, and a mechanical decade counter. that would be zero power consumption, mains isolated, and likely significantly more reliable.

[@Tims_Projects]

I haven't tried yet my self but, I have heard that if you get a "Black-Light" pen and paint the top of the chip enough for the ink to soak in, then wipe the excess of with your favourite isopropanol, you may be able to see remnants of the markings with a "Black-Light"?

[@samuelchamberlain2584]

I remember seeing a device in the maplin catalogue years ago called a surge clock , i think it was plugin with leds in a circle like clock face.

[@bigclivedotcom]

I remember that.

[@Berkeloid0]

Just as well you got the red LEDs for longevity, the green ones probably wouldn't have lasted the 10 minutes before it was irreparably taken to bits 😆

[@rbhe357]

Good thing he chose the red LED's and not those unreliable green ones.

[@bigclivedotcom]

All Gallium Nitride based LEDs fade and fail over time.

[@rbhe357]

@@bigclivedotcom No doubt. Just found it ironic you chose red over green, then tore it apart.

[@Poult100]

Have you tried discharging a large capacitor through a wire going through the sense coil? I think it would need a fast rise time. A sharp pulse. 😊

[@fazergazer]

Here in New Mexico near Magdalena, which is about four hours south of where I live. There is a lightning farm where they they attract lightning bolts by firing a wire to act as a preferred path for ionization and then you can put experiments down with the ground some of the main return occurs it’ll zap whatever it is. I bet they could test it with that.😢

[@alexross26]

can you do a series of how each of these components work? like what is a ptc thermistor? transient voltage suppressor? I love the videos

[@TheToastPeople]

Have seen variations of these in Johannesburg, electrical storms get hectic there!

[@markfergerson2145]

Thanks for pointing out that PTC resistor on the output. I was wondering why there was a tiny grape on the board. I wonder if they used the TVS devices because they cost less than zeners with those I and V specs? I haven’t had to price parts like that in decades but I wouldn’t be surprised.

[@michaelwebber4033]

I've been asked to install a heap of these into some switchboards I might have to build

[@Slikx666]

What I'd like to know is what does it count as a lightning strike? What we see as a strike is actually many strikes just in a quick succession, 10 plus strikes within 200ms would be a good estimate. I'd guess it would count strikes like the average person would but I could be wrong. 🤔